Mr Prime Minister, you are invited to Restaurant Atypique de Koudougou
A journalist friend provided me the other day with a piece from the AIB news agency (Agence d’Information du Burkina), stating that “The Government of Burkina Faso has issued orders to its public services to give preference to local food products”.
Government agencies are hereafter required, by a “temporary conservation order”, to give priority to local products to help alleviate marketing difficulties.
Public establishments as customers of food stuffs are now under the obligation to “make local products their first choice, before buying similar imported products”.
They are also required to include local food on their menu for coffee breaks, lunches, gala dinners and debates where food is served.
This is good news !
Worth to note is that Prime Minister «Paul Kaba Thiéba recommends his ministers to associate a vast communication campaign to such events, to stress the importance of local food for the nation’s economy. »
So this is indeed good news ! If it weren’t that ….
I just heard on the radio: “50 years ago we were already saying that we would be on Mars in 20 years”.
And that it is now more than 50 years since Burkina Faso became independent, but it still has no real food and agriculture policy.
And that it is now more than 30 years since President Sankara stated: “Let us eat what we produce in Burkina and produce what we want to eat.”
And that it is now more than 20 years since the world peasant farmers’ movement Via Campesina proposed, at the first World Food Summit (in Rome 1996), the recognition that the best way to achieve food security at world level is “food sovereignty” for each country (or all countries). Here again the idea is to prefer consumption of local food for the benefit of the national economy.
It is now over 5 years (at the first issue of Koudou du Burkina (see http://www.abcburkina.net/fr/nos-dossiers/vu-au-sud-vu-du-sud/850-437-ouagadougou-a-vu-la-premiere-edition-des-lnkoudou-du-fasonr ) since the Minister of Industry, Trade, Arts and Crafts, Mr Patiendé Arthur Kafando, made a public commitment on behalf of all of the Government:
“We will have to go through what developed countries have gone through in their development:
produce, process, value and consume what we have produced.
Therefore promotion of local production will be one of the strong points of the policy of Burkina Faso.”
At the time I made the following comment: “That is essential! It is now up to farmers, processing units and informed consumers to see to it that this commitment becomes a reality.”
Today my comment is in the same vein: Let us see to it that the undertaking of the present government does not remain unheeded.
JI have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the Prime Minister and his government. There are also a great many things I would like to convey to them. Therefore I invite the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade, Arts and Crafts to the Restaurant Atypique of Koudougou.
Here you will find a menu exclusively made up of local products: tô, rice “Grains d’Or” (parboiled rice from Sourou, rice cooked in sauce and plain rice with sauce as a side dish), couscous of parboiled fonio from the Nouna region) yam foutou, placali, dégué (yoghurt with millet grains), gapal, yoghurt (all these products are made in Koudougou and based on milk from local dairy cows, and not on imported milk powder). You will also discover maize juice (the recipe is Mexican but the maize is local). Even plates and pottery tableware are Made in Burkina (by women in Tscheriba).
“Yes Mr Prime Minister, you are invited to the Restaurant Atypique de Kougougou
Koudougou, January 27 2017
Maurice Oudet
Director SEDELAN
